Historically, children have played with dolls, plush characters, action figures, vehicles, fantasy characters, personified objects, or other toys of all shapes and sizes, collectively and generically referred to as "characters", in and/or upon various toy dwellings, houses, structures, buildings, playsets, platforms, stages, floors, fields, vehicles, ships, boats, planes, spacecraft, and other environments, collectively and generically referred as "character environments" or, alternatively more simply, as "environments".
As example, a favorite character environment for young girls has been the doll house. Girls often spend hours arranging toy furniture and characters in and about a doll house. A known example for boys is a parking lot and gasoline station play set. Boys often spend long periods moving small toy cars about, up and down ramps and the like in the playset. Those character environments provide a stage for expression of the child's fantasies about the toy characters.
More recently, electronics devices have been integrated into both characters and the character environment, such as the integrated circuit ("IC") chip, speech synthesis chip, and other electronic components. Initially, the electronics provided only sound effects and speech, which enhanced play. As example, such sound effects included doorbells ringing, telephones ringing, and of toilets flushing in dollhouses; included sounds of vehicle motors and screeching tires in garages and race tracks; and included sounds of rockets blasting, laser weapons firing, and explosions occurring in spacecraft. In some character environments, the electronics also synthesized and broadcast a characters voice(s), enhancing realism and/or fantasy play.
Then virtual pets and dolls, based on more sophisticated electronics, added a new dimension to play. They introduced artificial intelligence to those pets and dolls, giving them a more lifelike character. By means of various sensors, more and more toy characters now "know" what the child is doing with the toy character and the position the toy character is in.
The addition of a clock or other time-keeping device, programming logic relating to the character's needs relative to particular times of the day as indicated by the clock, the character's health, happiness and well-being relative to whether or not the character's requests have been responded to by the user, and sensors that enable the character to know what the child is doing with or to the character and if the child has responded to the character's needs or requests, has given these characters "virtual intelligence." Like a living being, the toy characters are "smart." They actually "know" what they need and what actions are appropriate to do at particular times of the day.
As example, a virtual pet has specific needs at particular times of the day, such as to be fed and watered, cleaned-up after defecating, bathed, played with, and go to sleep. If the pet's needs are not met by the child, then the pet will become ill and will eventually expire or leave for another home.
The virtual doll is one that, typically, simulates a small female child, but may be ornamented to simulate other genders or fantasy characters as well. That doll is self-contained with its electronics hidden inside the doll's torso. As further example, a virtual female doll will awaken and sleep at times of day specified and entered by the parent. She has basic needs for food and water at appropriate mealtimes, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack-times. She will need to have her diaper changed and will know when she dirtied it. She will need her clothes changed from pajamas, her sleep wear, to a dress or play-outfit, her daytime wear, because she knows what clothing she is wearing. The sensors in her clothing communicate that information to the doll's electronic controller hidden within the doll's torso.
She will need to play games at appropriate play times, need to have her teeth brushed in the morning, after meals, and before bedtime. And she will want her hair brushed and need love periodically throughout the day. She will become unhappy and fussy if her needs for food, water, love, and being changed and attended to are not met; and, she will even become ill if she is left unattended for too long a period. She will communicate those human thoughts, phrases and requests to the child in a natural human voice. An example of such a doll has been marketed by the Playmates company, called "Amazing Amy".
By means of an integrated circuit chip or chips that store the appropriate programming and logic information and speech, and various other electronic components, such as a speaker, a speech synthesizer, batteries, and other components, the doll is made to behave and talk like a real child, asking the owner to feed her, change her, play games with her, put her to bed, and so forth. The doll will become cranky and fussy if she is not responded to, and will need medicine, love, food, water, and to be played with in order to become happy and well again.
Sensors, such as resistors, magnets, momentary switches, or other devices, allow the doll to know if she is being touched, what she is being fed, if she has been changed or had her hair or teeth brushed, played a game with the child, or been given medicine, had her temperature taken, or her nose blown by the child. Both virtual pets and virtual dolls have set a new standard of intelligence in toys, which make them virtually come alive.
Because the electronics allowing these characters to be "smart" or "virtual" are too large as a practical matter to fit inside physically small size characters, products such as small or mini dolls, action figures, animals, vehicles, fantasy characters, cartoon characters, and personified objects, lack the "smartness" that children are becoming accustomed to expect. To date, toy manufacturers have been unable to make those small size characters "virtual" or "smart." As a consequence those products have become less attractive relative to the foregoing "virtual" products, which children find more exciting. It may be said that the small sized characters, being inanimate, lack the emotional "sizzle" that attracts children to modern virtual toy products.
Unless some way is found to add virtual personality and intelligence to small size toy characters, those character environments are likely to fall completely out of favor and disappear, losing forever an important vehicle through which children develop and express their imagination. As an advantage, the present invention restores attractiveness to and revitalizes such character environments and its accompanying small size toy characters.
A principal object of the invention, therefore, is to impart a virtual personality and intelligence to small size toy characters.
An additional object of the invention is to revitalize and add attractiveness to children's play environments that better amuses and/or entertains small children.
A still additional object is to imbue a group of small size toy characters with apparent intelligence enabling those toy characters to intelligently interact with one another, with their environment and with the player.
A further object of the invention is to provide individual virtual beings to a group of individual small size toy characters associated with an environment without requiring the characters to contain electronic controllers.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a play environment that imparts a virtual being to separate inanimate toy characters deposited in the environment.
And an ancillary object of the invention is to amuse, preoccupy for extended periods and help develop the imagination of young children.
It is also found that the prior virtual pets and dolls do not permit the child to exercise control over the play pattern. The electronic pet toy previously marketed by the Bandai company as the "Tamagotchi.TM." and another marketed by the Playmates's company as "Nano.TM." was programmed so that the virtual pet aged one year during the course of one day of real time, thereby simulating the lapse of a greater period of time, but the user could not exercise any control over that event. As an adjunct to the foregoing invention, an additional feature to enhance play of virtual pets and dolls of the prior kind and to the environment of the kind described in the following specification, the invention allows the child to be able to have greater control over the play pattern, in other words, to be able to pretend an entire day's play with a doll or pet or character in a compressed time period when and if the child desires to do so.
To the foregoing end, the invention includes means to force the environment cycle through an entire day's activity, compressing the day into a predetermined period of time, such as one hour in order for a child to more rapidly involve him/herself in the play activities of an entire day in a shorter period "play day", if desired. The foregoing subsidiary invention can also be incorporated within the existing kinds of virtual pets and dolls.
Thus, a still further object of the invention therefore is to detach events that are to occur at specific times of day during operation of the foregoing environment, or in virtual pets and dolls and attaching those activities to an artificial time that progresses more rapidly than real time.
And a still additional object of the invention is to permit a player of a character environment, virtual pet or virtual doll to force a day for such environment, pet or doll to transpire more quickly than a real day.